War and Sacrifice – Post 9/11

This Friday is the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Afghanistan War. Has this been ten years of war for the entire country? No, not really. As a recent study from the Pew Research Center points out, only 1.5 percent has been on active military duty since the beginning of the war.

Some 83% of all adults say that military personnel and their families have had to make a lot of sacrifices since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; 43% say the same about the American people. However, even among those who acknowledge this gap in burden-sharing, only 26% describe it as unfair. Seven-in-ten (70%) consider it “just part of being in the military.”

Veterans are very proud of their military service; but an alarming 44% of them are having trouble coming home, coming back to life as a civilian, including the 37% who have problems related to post traumatic stress, whether or not they have been “officially diagnosed.” The path to “official diagnosis” is not an easy one, with the backlog of cases both in the active duty medical services and the VA. Many veterans relate that they experience outbursts of anger and irritability since their discharge and this strains their family relations. These relations are strained by the deployment schedule, training schedule and constant moving.

With all their pride in their service, these veterans are not completely supportive of both the wars. 50% of these veterans think that the war in Afghanistan has been worth the sacrifice, but only one third think that the Iraq war has been. They are also strongly convinced that they are more patriotic than other Americans by over 60%.

“While they report that their fellow citizens have thanked them for their service, these veterans also know that most Americans have a poor understanding of military life. More than seven-in-ten recent veterans believe the public knows little of the rewards of their service, and 84% say Americans are largely unaware of the problems they and their families face”.

The public, on the other hand, says the wars have made very little difference in their lives and very few (about a quarter of the civilian population) follow the news of the wars closely. This, while almost 4,500 troops have died in Iraq, while, 1,700 have died in the last 10 years in Afghanistan, with countless thousands wounded. This is the type of disconnect that has widened the gap between the military community and the civilian community.

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15 comments

Is it strange or irregular that Mark wants to crucify Obama for his war process, but doesn't even mention the P/VP who started the two wars that we are presently engaging in order to make the wealthy more wealthy? Racism takes many forms, but this Palin-like behavior to try to rewrite history would be comical if not sad and pathetic.

Afghanistan is not a "war" in any sense of the word "war". It's a mercenary and contractor assault on civilians, which appears to be basic foreign policy of the US since WWII. It's not only murder it's illegal invasion, destruction and occupation of nations mass murder, terrorism, trespassing and theft, and Obama should be tried and jailed for that crime, as well as for escalating his drones, the Obama terror weapons that murder children and families daily.

Substitute Vietnam for Iraq, Afghanistan or pretty much any other war and your would have the same vitally important article.
"War, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it
Absolutely Nothing" Edwin Starr

All a waste of money , time and lives. But we can stop them .All we need to do is return the Fed back to US by taking the Fed back from the ZIONIST Banksters who since the 1913 have the States by the short and curlies. You don't have to put up with being screwed generation after geneation by those criminals who print Fiat money out of nothing and then charge a fortune for being allowed to self destruct. When will people wake up that they can work as hard as they like as slaves to the system but will never dig themselves our of a hole they have dug for themselves. .

War - a Money Machine! Have you know anyone that has left Congress a poor person. They didn't get rich on their salaries. They make their money taking part on inside trading in arms and munitions. Sell off the old (Iran Contra Affair) and resupply with the New. We can't keep using it up in War Games or bombing uninhabited islands for practise. Remember the war that was to pay for itself in a year, oil was the objective, but, we lost that edge when Turkey refuse an attack from their borders which would have secured that oil. But that was not enough for Congress to bite. They had to be reminded of all the weapons that were given to Saddam, especially the chemical weapons to use against Iran. There are WMDs in Iraq - We just don't know where they are hidden. The one thing we didn't give him yet was the long range ability to deliver them. War is money and the cost of lives is just part of the cost of doing business. Peace has "No Profit!"

War is costly in terms of lives lost and money (27 billion dollars per year) spent on perpetuating war. War does not solve the problem but creates more problems. The status of women in Afghanistan is now worse than it was when troops first went there in 2001. The Canadian Government spends more money annually of its national budget on war and war supplies than it does on education and health combined. They have turned our economy into a war economy. Profits for a few greedy people are made from the death and destruction of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Shame! It is time to stop forcing war on the people of Canada and elsewhere. It solves nothing.